03 Feb What Trees Know
Before flowers were arranged, trees were already practising restraint. In winter, they offer no colour, no perfume, no flourish. What remains is structure: line, balance, proportion. February has a way of sharpening the eye. Without abundance to rely on, attention shifts to what holds—a principle familiar to florists working with seasonal materials and winter floral arrangements.
Reading The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben at this time of year feels less like natural history and more like quiet instruction. His observations dismantle the long-held image of the forest as a collection of solitary competitors. Instead, he describes something closer to a society—one built on cooperation, memory, and patience.
Trees, he suggests, are not individualists. Beneath the soil, their roots intertwine, assisted by fungal networks that distribute nutrients, transmit warnings, and sustain weaker members of the group. The forest, seen properly, is not a display of strength but a system designed for continuity.
For contemporary florists, this feels instinctively familiar. A considered floral arrangement does not rely on a single stem performing for attention. It holds because each element supports the next. The mechanics—structure, spacing, balance—remain unseen. What the viewer notices is ease.
Trees also remember. Their growth rings record years of stress and abundance alike. Cold winters, dry summers, narrow years, generous ones—none are erased. Form is cumulative. A tree’s shape is its autobiography.
Winter floristry carries the same quiet authority. Branches, bark, and natural materials do not announce themselves, yet they speak of time passed. In February, florists often turn to these elements not out of necessity, but intention—creating bouquets and arrangements that value line over colour, and form over excess.
Wohlleben writes, too, about speed. Fast-growing trees, he notes, tend to be weaker; slow-grown wood is denser, more resilient. In nature, urgency rarely produces strength. The same is true of craft. A florist’s voice develops gradually, shaped by repetition and seasonality. This is especially evident in bespoke bouquets and hand-tied arrangements, where restraint is as important as abundance. February rewards this way of working. There is little room for excess, and no need to disguise it.
Perhaps the most disarming idea in Wohlleben’s work is that trees are not passive. They respond to threat, release chemical signals, and prompt neighbouring trees to prepare themselves. The forest is alert, not decorative. It is paying attention.
Flowers behave the same way. They respond to handling, placement, and care—qualities at the heart of thoughtful floral design.
February belongs to trees because it strips things back to essentials. Without foliage or bloom, trees reveal their architecture. Without spectacle, what remains is intention. And intention, after all, is where good floristry begins—whether in the forest, or in the seasonal arrangements created at Penny Blooms & Beans.